Mama's Boy
by Aishuu
Summary: In some other world, Burt Hummel is the one who died young, leaving his wife to raise Kurt alone. Kurt's life may be very different, but some essentials will never change for a gay kid in a conservative town.
1. Chapter 1

**Mama's Boy  
**

_by aishuu_

Notes: So I'm sure some people who are used to my slower story posting pace are confused (and maybe annoyed) by my sudden Glee-thon. To which I reply: I have three Gleefics I want to get out before the season premiere, since I hate getting Jossed. The second half of this fic will be posted Friday or Saturday. And... this is my head canon for Kurt's mom.

* * *

The first time Kurt came home with a bloody nose, Kate Hummel shut her eyes and prayed for patience.

She'd always known this would happen – boys would be boys, after all. She'd also known, deep in her heart, that Kurt was going to be the focus of a lot of schoolyard abuse. Children could be cruel, and they would inevitably single out those who were different.

And you didn't get much more "different" than a nine-year-old future queen.

She knew all the words for what Kurt would become: homo, fag, queer, fairy, cocksucker... the list went on and on, all of the words offensive. She forced herself to use the words in her mind, because she was going to have to get used to hearing them. The maternal part of her – and she wasn't a terribly maternal woman, no matter how much she tried – wanted to protect her baby boy, but she was smart enough to know that there was no way to protect Kurt from the world.

Maybe it was good Burt hadn't lived to see this. Burt had wanted a manly son, a boy he could play sports with and teach auto mechanics to. She loved her late husband, but she knew he would have had problems accepting Kurt for who he was and would be. Kate didn't know if Burt would have any clue what to do with such an effeminate son.

Kurt, she had to admit to herself, was a bit of a wuss.

Then she heard him sobbing about the bloodstains on his third-favorite sweater.

No, he was a big wuss.

The school nurse had done a decent job of packing his nose, but Kate knelt down beside Kurt to make sure he wasn't still bleeding. She was a dermatologist, and didn't practice much first aid, but had enough general training to handle this kind of mess. Thankfully she didn't see any signs of fresh blood, so she was going to wait a bit for things to have a chance to properly clot before removing the bandages and getting a closer look. The nurse said Kurt's nose wasn't broken, but Kate needed to see it with her own eyes before she could relax.

Kurt's whimpers grew softer as she pulled him into a hug. He was at the age where he should have been starting to pull away from his mother, but Kurt was clinging like a leech. There were two ways to handle this: she could break out the Ben and Jerry's and offer him a Disney night (and God, she was fed up with _The Little Mermaid_), or she could could let him struggle to figure out how to handle this himself. He should be learning some independence, after all.

He whimpered again, and she thought "screw it." She wasn't about to make this a teachable moment when her boy was hurt.

Thirty minutes later they were snuggled up together watching _The Wizard of Oz._ While Kurt sang along with _Somewhere Over the Rainbow_, Kate mentally plotted ways to help her son survive growing up. 

* * *

That evening after Kurt was in bed, Kate picked up the phone to call Gary, Burt's brother. When Burt died almost two years ago (twenty-three months and five days, but who's counting?), Gary had offered to do anything he could to help. Kate was going to take him up on the offer.

"Hi, Gary? It's Kate," she said as soon as he picked up his phone.

"Kate?" He paused for a long moment, and she was under the impression he was trying to place her name. "Katie! Is something wrong?"

No one had called her Katie since the funeral. All of her family members, friends and colleagues called her Kate or Cathryn. Katie had been something from Burt. Hearing it now, from a voice so similar to Burt's, stung, but not with the sharp-pain of having her heart torn out. The memory it evoked was more bittersweet, bringing forth nostalgia.

"Can you spend some time with Kurt this weekend?" she asked, before she could think better of it. "I think someone needs to teach him how to fight." 

* * *

Gary Hummel lived sixty miles away, which was why they hadn't visited frequently. They had agreed that he would take Kurt for a weekend, which would give them time to do some "male bonding."

"Boy needs a father figure," Gary had pointed out.

Kate didn't say how much she hated the implication that it was impossible for a single mother to raise a son without a man in her life. Gary was doing her a favor, and she didn't want to rouse the infamous Hummel temper. For Kurt's sake, she bit her tongue and thanked him.

Kurt had been especially clingy when she dropped him off at his uncle's. Gary had five children, three of them boys, and the family was loud and rambunctious. Kurt watched her leave with distrustful eyes, but Kate didn't let herself feel guilty for abandoning him for the weekend. This was for his own good.

The house was awfully quiet the next couple of days. She plowed through her back paperwork (her secretary was going to hate her on Monday), and didn't let herself give into the temptation to call Gary's to see how her little boy was doing. This was the first evening Kurt had spent away from home, so it was natural she worry, right?

When Kurt arrived back on Sunday afternoon, it was all she could do not to run out to the car. Kate forced herself to remain composed, waiting in the living room. She sat with her book in her lap, not hinting that she'd been looking out the window for the past three hours.

Kurt didn't even bother to hug her. She felt hurt as he raced right by her, grabbing the door to his room and slamming it shut behind him. She didn't know what to make of it.

Gary came to stand across from her, shifting on his feet as he waited for her to meet his eyes. "The boy's a fag," Gary said. "I bet Burt's spinning over in his grave."

"That is a horrible thing to say!" she said, forcing herself not to yell since Kurt might overhear. She rose to her feet without thinking about it, lashing a hand out at Gary's face. _How _dare_ he, Kurt's own uncle... oh my god, I left my baby with this man for two days, what did he do to my son?_

He wisely stepped out of reach, holding his hands up in front of his body. "Cool down, Katie-girl! It's not like I'm telling you something you don't know!"

She took a deep breath, struggling to regain control. "What did you say to my son?"

Gary sighed, shaking his head. "Do you think I'm such a jackass I'd call a little kid names?"

"If you did, they're never going to find all the pieces when I'm done with you. If you hurt my son..." She was still shaking from her rage, although she managed to keep her voice level.

"He's my flesh and blood, too." He pulled off his Browns cap, running a hand over his thinning hair. "Look, you think we can talk like adults about this?"

"I'll give you five minutes before I break out my good kitchen knives." She wasn't joking.

Gary swallowed conspicuously. "Did Burt ever tell you about our cousin John?"

She shook her head. "Not that I remember," she said, wondering where Gary was taking this.

"Not surprised. John..." he trailed off. "He was like Kurt. Queer as a three dollar bill, and unable to pretend otherwise."

She thought of her husband, a man who radiated the aura of good ol' boy, and felt lead settle into her stomach. She didn't want confirmation to her inner fears that Burt wouldn't have been able to accept his own son. "Burt hated him, didn't he?"

"Hate's too strong a word. Hummels are family, and we all love each other. It's just..." For a second, his eyes seemed distant. "Boys will be boys. One of our favorite family reunion games was trying to beat the gay out of him. And his parents and our grandparents kept sending him to those gay fixing camps, trying to make a man out of him."

This couldn't have ended well. Despite all the family reunion picnics she'd attended with Burt, she'd never met John and hadn't heard his name. Considering the family still griped loudly and bitterly about the time Aunt Louisa had skipped the gathering in favor of having gallbladder surgery, it had to be bad.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He killed himself," Gary said. "He was seventeen."

Kate shut her eyes. She'd been reading up on homosexuality ever since Kurt's third birthday, when he'd spent the entire evening sulking because he hadn't been given a pair of girl's shoes. She knew that homosexual teens were much more likely to kill themselves, and secretly feared that her son would become one of the statistics.

She heard the sound of shifting fabric, and suddenly there's a pair of strong arms wrapped around her. The arms weren't quite right (they were not Burt's), but no one had held her in a long time, and she allowed herself to cry.

She had been so scared for so long. She wasn't cut out for being a single parent. It hurt so much to watch her son suffer, because she knew there was nothing she could do to save him.

Gary was a good guy, rubbing her back until she settled down. "Do you need a glass of water?" he offered as she pulled away.

"No," she said, wiping at her eyes and feeling embarrassed. She was _Cathryn Sawyer Hummel_, for god's sake. She wasn't supposed to be weak. "I want to know why my son was so upset when he came storming in."

"Junior and Caleb are a bit too much like their old man, before he learned better," he said. "They tried a bit of roughhousing, and I didn't catch them in time."

She wanted to be furious at him, but she knew how hard it was to chase children around all the time. "Boys will be boys?"

"Most will. Kurt... there's no way he's going to be able to hold his own in a fight," Gary told her. He scratched his stubbly chin, looking thoughtful. "He's built like you, all fragile like."

She huffed, knowing he had a point. She was all of five feet tall, which was one of the reasons she never left the house wearing flats.

"So should I put him in karate or something?"

"That's not gonna help, Katie-girl," Gary said. "If a bigger guys gets hold of him, he'd have a hard time breaking loose. The boy's gonna need to know how to run, more than anything." Then his forehead crinkled, and his eyes flashed as an idea occurred to him. "Maybe kickboxing would be a good idea. It'll force the other guy to stay back out of his range."

She turned the idea around in her head a couple of times, finding it acceptable despite Kurt's inevitable pouting about doing something that would get him messy. "He's going to hate it."

"My boys hate piano, but Ruthie still makes them go," Gary said. "Sometimes parents have to know what's best. Though I could go the rest of my life without hearing _Heart and Soul_ again."

She laughed, and thanked him for his help.

Gary rose to leave. "No need for thanks, Katie. The boy's family. I heard the gay thing runs in families, so I don't think it's anyone fault he's a twinkie. I just want to do things right this time. I'm sure Burt would've wanted that."

"I'm sure," she agreed, though her words lacked Gary's conviction. 

* * *

Kurt started the kickboxing lessons the next week. He hadn't wanted to, but she promised he could take dance classes for as long as he did kickboxing after he'd said he'd much rather take ballet than some stupid fighting class. He'd given her that bright grin of his, and she realized he'd picked up her skill at negotiation.

Kurt had kickboxing and dancing lessons twice a week each, and the last free afternoon was filled by his piano and vocal instructor. It kept him busy while she worked her ten hour days, and kept him from being home alone or stuck at sitter's vegetating in front of the television. Thankfully her salary was enough that she could afford to hire Brenna, a neighborhood high schooler, to be in charge of shuffling him to lessons and making sure he ate dinner. How single mothers who weren't pulling in half a mill a year did it, she couldn't figure out.

The one good thing about her long workdays was that she had the entire weekend free to spend with her son. She hadn't noticed it until months later, but the invitations for play dates had mysteriously dried up, and Kurt didn't never asked to have friends over anymore. He was content to play on his own, but she knew it wasn't healthy.

So they'd spend Saturdays out doing something, like going to Columbus to watch a performance or visiting museums or shopping. If Kate hadn't already known Kurt wasn't a normal little boy, the way he loved to trot through the malls and pick out outfits for himself and for her would have alarmed her. Kate was very fond of fashion, but she could see that Kurt already had a more instinctive eye for trends. A couple of his picks made her wince, but they were always striking and never forgettable.

It was the inadvertent source of their first real fights. Kurt had always been a loving child, and mature for his age. So Kate was blindsided when he threw a tantrum one Monday morning when he was in fifth grade.

Kate made sure she and Kurt sat down and had breakfast together every morning. It was their bonding time, and she and Kurt would talk about what was going on in their lives. It was important to keep the lines of communication open and let Kurt know she was always there for him.

When he came upstairs that morning, she blinked for a second. "What are you wearing?"

He preened, spinning around. "Do you like it?"

"It's... something else," Kate replied, unable to think of anything else to say. He was wearing his black dress pants and dress shoes, a multicolor shirt she didn't recognize, a black newsboy cap and a silver scarf he'd taken from her closet. "Go change into your normal clothes."

"_What?_" he screeched, and mentally she spared a wish that his voice would break sooner rather than later.

"It's not appropriate for going to school," she said, struggling to keep hold of her temper. He was going to get the snot kicked out of him if she let him get away with it. Kurt didn't need to do anything more than breathe to encourage bullies, but wearing flamboyant clothes would be like waving a red flag in front of an angry bull.

"I don't care! This is what I want to wear!"

"Go. Change," she said, rising to her feet and pointing to his room.

"Why should I?" he retorted, crossing his arms over his chest and a stubborn pout settling onto his face.

"Because I'm your mother, that's why!" Was that really her? She sounded exactly like her mother. _Oh, god, I'm turning into my mother,_ she thought with horror.

"I hate you!" Kurt yelled back, before stomping off down to his room and slamming the door behind him.

She winced at the words she'd never wanted to hear. She'd always sworn to herself that she would never give her son cause to hate her, that she would be ten times the mother her own had been. She remembered the throwdowns she'd get into with her mother as a teenager, fights that would last days with neither giving ground. She'd thought she'd be able to avoid that with Kurt, since he was such a sweet child, at least until he was older.

Leave it to Kurt to prove precocious.

Half an hour later, she drove her sulking child to school. Kurt was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, but she couldn't feel any triumph. All she felt was fatigue, since she knew instinctively that this was the start of a long, very trying adolescence.

She hoped they both survived. 

* * *

Kurt didn't speak to her for a whole week, flouncing around the house like a huffy, pissed off kitten. After the first day of the silent treatment, Kate got her own stubborn on, deciding she wasn't going to bend on this.

Her online parenting support groups weren't much help. This wasn't supposed to be a problem she was supposed to have with a son, and she didn't think the solution was treating him like a girl ("let her make her own fashion mistakes"), either. The online support groups tended to be very liberal and child-empowerment driven, but she didn't think most of the participants were raising their children in conservative communities.

She's had enough by Saturday morning. They had tickets to see a college production of _Little Shop of Horrors_, and she wasn't in the mood to spend the entire day with a bratty son. So when Kurt came into the kitchen still looking like a little storm cloud, she decided it was time for a heart to heart.

He looked suspicious when she gestured for him to take a seat. "It's time we had a talk," she said.

"I'm still mad at you," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm mad at you, too." Being honest was important. "But I didn't tell you to change just because I wanted to be mean."

"Why?"

She wanted to believe he was that innocent still, but she was smarter than that. "You know why, Kurt. Your classmates won't approve."

"You want me to look like everyone else?"

There was a sensitive answer that her parenting groups would recommend, and there was the answer Kate wanted to give. "I'm not telling you they're right, Kurt. But what do you think would happen if you dress like that?"

"I'll look fabulous?"

She couldn't help but grin at his reply. "Aside from that. What do you think the other kids would do to you?"

"I don't care what they think," Kurt told her. "What they think doesn't matter to me."

Her heart squeezed in her chest. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that he didn't place value in the other kids' opinion of him. It was good that he was secure enough in his own ego to not worry about what others thought, but Kurt was starting to develop a condescending attitude. Everyone had value, even people you didn't like.

"But it does worry me. I can't be there to protect you all the time, and neither can your teachers."

He thought on it for a long moment. "I know kickboxing and can take care of myself if they try to beat me up?" he suggested.

She shook her head. "Part of the battle is knowing which battles to fight. Do you really want to get in fights all the time?"

He shuddered. "Not really."

"Maybe we can work out a compromise," she said, thinking. "On weekends, you can wear whatever you want when we go out. Weekdays, I think you should stick to jeans and sneakers."

He made a face. "That's boring."

"It's appropriate for where you'll be going. Fashion isn't just about wearing fabulous clothes, it's about knowing how to select an ensemble that matches what you'll be doing."

Kurt tapped his hand against the armrest of his chair. "Designer jeans and name brand sneakers? The idiots might not know Levis from Armani Exchange, but I do."

"I think we can arrange that."

Kurt smiled and bounced to his feet, coming over to throw his arms around her neck. Kate let herself enjoy the feeling of holding him, but couldn't escape the thought that this wasn't over yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Mama's Boy  
**

_by aishuu_

* * *

Kate liked being right, but at the moment, she wished she hadn't been after mentally predicting Kurt would be a difficult teenager. She was so angry that she was considering shipping Kurt off to boarding school – or she would, provided she didn't kill him instead.

"If you don't unlock this door _right now_, I'll take it off its hinges!" She pounded on the door to the basement, wondering why she'd thought letting him have his own space was such a good idea. Especially since he'd taken to retreating to it when she said something he didn't like.

She wondered, sometimes, where her sweet little boy had gone. Right now she was living with a sixteen year old monster. Whenever she complained about how horrid Kurt acted to her best friend, Liz, Liz would joke, "I told you you should have eaten him when he was a baby."

The joke had been funny once, but now it wasn't.

The parenting books all stressed the importance of not letting your kid see how upset they made you, but Kate wondered what ten-cent shrink came up with that lovely idea. Parents were human, and Kurt was the best person in the world at hitting her buttons. She wanted to shake some common sense into him.

Truth be told, she didn't know how this particular fight had gotten started. They'd been eating dinner – salad with lemon pepper chicken – when she'd said something that had set him off. He's replied snappishly, and then they were going at it. It'd been three days since their last fight, so maybe they'd been overdue.

Before Kurt had been born, Kate had wanted a little boy. She and her mother had spent most of their time together fighting, and she didn't want to go through that from the other side. She still cringed whenever her mother called, although she knew now that her mother had genuinely wanted what was best for her.

Having Kurt had been a relief, since she'd thought she would avoid those fights that only a mother and daughter could have.

She was such a naïve fool sometimes.

Kate didn't know if it was because she was a single mother or if it was due to Kurt's burgeoning homosexuality, but they seemed to spend more time fighting than anything else. It was over clothes and rules, and Kurt's lack of respect for anyone else. They would be going along fine, and then something would set off another stupid, stupid fight.

Taking a couple deep breaths, she forced herself to step back from the doorway. Pounding on the door wasn't going to get her anything. Kurt was likely plugged into his Ipod, intentionally ignoring her. The only thing she'd get from screaming would be a sore throat.

He had to come out eventually. And when he did, she was going to ground him until next year. She was the parent here, and she wasn't about to be pushed around by her son.

* * *

Kurt didn't emerge until the next morning, just in time to skip breakfast. She looked at his outfit – wherever he got that awful bug brooch, she didn't know – and raised an eyebrow. Kurt only dressed this outrageously when he wanted to piss someone off, usually her. Their earlier name brand jeans compromise had only lasted through ninth grade, when Kurt declared he wasn't going to buckle under the whims of the losers in this cow town.

She held out her hand. "Keys," she said.

"What?"

"You know the deal. You lose your car privileges when you act like a brat."

"_Mother_."

"Hand them over."

He glared at her, then dug into his schoolbag to pull them out. "You're really unfair."

"It's a mother's job to make her child miserable," she said, keeping her expression blank. "I'll take you in about ten minutes, so go eat something."

His glare spoke volumes, but she stood firm. Huffing, he went to the refrigerator to pull out an apple. Kurt wasn't big on eating, since he was constantly concerned about how he looked. If Kate wasn't around to make sure he didn't conveniently miss meals, he might well develop a full blown case of anorexia.

Kurt had always been an odd little boy, and had only become more peculiar as he'd gotten older. Trying to make him fit into Lima was an impossible task, and Kate worried all the time about how he was being treated. After the first threatening phone call to her office, Kate knew Lima wasn't safe.

When it had been time for Kurt to enter high school, Kate had spent the a lot of time weighing if it would be better to move to a more enlightened area. Her medical license was only good in Ohio, but dermatologists were in demand everywhere in the state. They could move to Cleveland or Columbus or Cincinnati... any of those places might be more open-minded than Lima. It was true they wouldn't know anyone, but she was so busy she rarely saw her friends, and Kurt had none.

It wasn't a decision she had wanted to make. She was comfortable in Lima, and feared that moving would only traumatize Kurt even more. Burt's family was close by, and she relied on Gary and Steve (Burt's other brother) to provide positive male role models for Kurt (not that Kurt showed any interest in "acting like a man," but she should at least expose him to the traditional idea of masculinity, right?).

In the end, she had decided that staying made more sense. No matter where Kurt went, he was going to attract attention. Running away would teach him the wrong lesson, since Kurt was going to have to learn to be able to cope with bigotry. High school might seem like forever to a teenager, but it was only four years. She hated to see Kurt miserable, but that was part of growing up.

She thought it'd been the right decision. Kurt had joined the Glee Club and made a couple of good friends, which was a healthy development for him. She still worried about his superiority complex, but she was starting to believe it was just a self defense mechanism.

When they pulled into the McKinley parking lot fifteen minutes later, Kurt made her park the car in the teacher's parking area. He didn't want any of his friends to see him being dropped off by his mother.

"Have a good day at school," she said.

"Enjoy work," Kurt replied, but his hand lingered over the door handle when he caught sight of something outside the window by the dumpsters.

Kate frowned, watching as a bunch of boys in Letterman jackets tossed a smaller boy into the dumpster. Kurt had told her they had tried to do it to him once, but Kurt had kicked two of them in the nads. The jocks had decided to leave his torment to verbal bullying and the occasional slushie since getting too close to him wasn't a good idea.

"Should I go get a teacher?"

He shook his head. "Not worth it. Nobody'll do anything except maybe send them to a session with Ms. Pillsbury about their self-esteem issues."

"Ah." She really hated the psychobabble explanation for bullying, almost as much as she hated the parenting psychobabble.

For a moment, she thought Kurt was wisely waiting for the bullies to move on, but then she noticed the dreamy expression on his face. Kate blinked, turning her head to see what he was looking at.

She wasn't surprised to see Finn Hudson was one of the ringleaders.

For the past six months, she'd been treated to a litany of Finn Hudson's praises. Kurt made no secret that he liked the school's quarterback, and would spend the nights that they were on speaking terms babbling about what Finn had done that day.

Kate would have thought it strange, if she hadn't realized Finn was Kurt's first crush. She was glad Kurt felt comfortable enough to talk to her about him. Kurt had never officially announced his sexuality to her, but he'd never really been in the closet. The fact that he assumed Kate accepted him as he was made her feel like supermom.

She glanced at her son, wishing he had better taste in men. He was going to get his heart broken, and there was nothing she could do to spare him that. She hurt already, because the last thing she wanted was for her little boy to feel that kind of pain.

* * *

Kate was always busy at work. Between paperwork, consultations and managing her staff, she rarely had time to worry about her son, which was a good thing. The last thing she wanted was to become a hovering mother, since Kurt would hate it. Her boy had an independent streak the width of the Mississippi.

So a week later when her receptionist Amy intercepted her before she could get to her two o'clock, she was shocked.

"Kurt's gotten into a fight," Amy said, holding a clipboard against her chest defensively. Kate knew the staff respected her, but were wary of rousing her occasional displays of temper.

She shut her eyes, struggling to keep calm. "Do I need to bring him to the hospital?"

"I don't know. The school just said you needed to come and pick him up."

As messages went, it sucked. Kate looked around, weighing what she should do. She could send Amy or another staff member, or call her next door neighbor to come and get Kurt. There were two patients in the exam rooms, and more likely in the lobby, and they would be upset if she left.

Screw them. Her boy needed her.

"Cancel my appointments for the rest of today, and I'll call to let you know if you need to cancel for tomorrow, too. Apologize to everyone, but I've got a family emergency I need to take care of."

Amy nodded, her face fierce and approving. "I'll handle the rescheduling," she promised.

Driving might have been a challenge, if Burt hadn't been such a safety freak about cars and passed that onto Kate. It made his death at the hands of a drunk driver all that more sad, when she stopped to think about it. Right now she forced herself to pay attention to the roads, driving the three miles from her office to the school. It kept her from worrying too much about how much her baby was hurting.

When she arrived at the school, she stopped in the office to sign in. As soon as she entered the room, the two school receptionists looked up and froze. Kate felt a lump of fear growing in her throat.

_"Where is my son?_ she asked. She wasn't screaming – no one would see Dr. Hummel lose her cool – but it was a command.

The two woman both pointed at a wall, before the one closer to her swallowed and spoke. "In Principal Figgins' office."

Kate gave them a jerky nod before turning and stalking out. That had to be good news, that Kurt was in the principal's office instead of the nurse's office, right?

Unfortunately for her, her arrival coincided with the beginning of final period for the students, and the hallways were packed. Students were at their lockers in clumps, gossiping and horsing around. Their presence was a barrier between her and Kurt, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with anything.

Her Tom James suit marked her as out of place, and a couple of the more observant students noticed her. She was wearing her four-inch heels today, so she was almost tall enough to be imposing, glaring at a couple of the students who bumped into her.

She was half a hallway from her goal when a teenage boy deliberately stepped in her path, wearing a smirk and ridiculous mohawk. "Heya, sweet thing," he said, undressing her with his eyes. "Haven't seen you around here before."

"The next place you'll see me is at court pressing a harassment charge if you don't get out of my way," she snapped. Satisfyingly, he backed up, his eyes a bit wide, as she passed.

She thought she heard Mercedes Jones' voice, telling the boy, "That's Dr. Hummel, Kurt's mother. You're an idiot if you think she's gonna be one of your cougars."

Luckily she didn't hear anything else. She could see Kurt through the glass doors of Principal Figgins' office, and nothing was going to stop her until she had a chance to examine her son with her own eyes. She breezed right through, ignoring the secretaries and opening the principal's door without knocking.

Kurt turned his head, and she couldn't see any damage to his face. "Hi, mom," he said, his voice cool and not particularly welcoming, but unashamed as well.

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," he replied, but something in his voice indicated he might not be. She frowned, looking for signs of injury, but saw none.

The principal apparently decided they'd had enough time to talk. "Mrs. Hummel-" Figgins started, but Kate cut him off.

"It's Dr. Hummel."

"Yes, Dr. Hummel," Figgins corrected, a humoring smile on his face. "I'm sorry to call you from work, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to suspend your son for a week for fighting."

Kate blinked. She hadn't been expecting that. "You're kidding me," she said.

"I'm afraid I'm not," Principal Figgins replied. "We at William McKinley take fighting very seriously."

Kurt stared stonily at the principal, not saying anything to defend himself.

Kate felt her own temper start to rise. "Like I'm supposed to believe that? I know about the slushies and the way some of your students toss others into the dumpster on a daily basis. I also know those students are never punished."

"That's kids being kids," Principal Figgins dismissed. "Your son broke Finn Hudson's nose!"

"He did know I was a two dan in kickboxing," Kurt said, buffing his nails on his jacket.

Of all things she might have expected, that was at the bottom of the list. No, it wasn't even on the list, since she knew her son was head over heels in love with Finn. She looked at Kurt, wondering if he was lashing out after being turned down. "Can you excuse us for a moment? I need to talk to my son."

Figgins nodded. "Of course."

Several seconds ticked by, and no one moved.

"I thought you were leaving?" Kate said pointedly. "It makes more sense, since I don't think I'll be able to find somewhere private to talk to Kurt."

Figgins gave her a shocked look, but obediently rose to his feet and left the room. She watched him head over to the coffeemaker, seeming dazed. Then she turned her attention to Kurt.

"Spill," she ordered.

He shrugged. "He had it coming."

"Why? Because he doesn't like you like you like him?"

"It's not about that. I can't believe I thought..."

"Then tell me what it is about."

"Finn is really mad at the glee club right now," he said. "Remember how I told you about Quinn Fabray?"

Kate nodded. "His pregnant girlfriend."

"She's pregnant, but he's not the father." Kurt took a deep breath. "And we – the club – knew it. So when he found out, he was pretty pissed off."

In other circumstances, Kate might have reacted more visibly, but right now she didn't care about some teenage girl's drama. "That's understandable. How did this end up with you breaking his nose?"

"Mercedes and I thought we'd talk to him. We were going to apologize for the club and ask him to come back. Sectionals is in two days, and we need him to compete."

Despite his brilliant mind, her son was an idiot. Kate shut her eyes, counting backwards from ten. "I'm guessing that upset him quite a lot."

"It did." Kurt kept quiet for a couple of heartbeats, before adding, "He told me he didn't want to listen to me, since what did I know about girlfriends since I was a fag?"

Kate had to struggle not to get to her feet and hunt down Finn so she could _demonstrate_ what happened to someone who hurt her son. She'd gotten use to hearing the word from all the anonymous phone calls and Gary's thoughtless comments, but it was still hateful. Hearing it from the boy he'd liked had to make it a hundred times worse.

"Oh, Kurt." She reached out to touch his arm. "I know getting called names may hurt, but you can't attack everyone who calls you something ugly."

"That's not why I kicked him, mom," he said, looking down his nose at her. "I get that all the time."

"I'm confused?"

"Mercedes got offended on my behalf. She got in his face and was telling him off, and Finn pushed her away... he pushed her into a chair and she fell on the floor. That's why I hit him. A guy shouldn't treat a girl like that, and she's _my_ girl. I couldn't let him get away with it."

Kate stopped breathing for a moment. His words were like hearing Burt talk to her. Looking into Kurt's face, all she could see was his blue green eyes, which were exactly the same as his father's. She must have been quiet for too long, because Kurt started to babble to fill the silence.

"I know Mercedes can take care of herself, but she shouldn't have to. I respect her, really I do, but stepping in to defend her was the right thing to do..."

She didn't know when she started to cry, but she could feel the moisture of tears on her cheeks. She rose to her feet, then leaned over so she could wrap her son – and when had he gotten so big? - in a hug.

"Mommy?" he whispered.

"You're just like your father," she said as she pulled back, brushing a couple of strands of hair away from his forehead so she could kiss his temple. "You've got his sense of right and wrong, his sense of justice."

Kurt blinked at her. "I thought I wasn't anything like him."

"You're like him in the ways that matter most," she said. "A child is supposed to get the best of each of their parents. And you did."

Kate Hummel wasn't fond of mushy displays, especially not in a glass-enclosed areas where anyone could look in. Taking a deep breath, she let go of her son to gather her composure. Kurt, apparently equally uncomfortable, pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. She used it to dab her face dry.

"Am I presentable?" she asked.

Kurt squinted a bit, before rising to his own feet to take the handkerchief back to make touch-ups. It felt really weird to look up at him as he rubbed around her eyes. Somewhere along the way, he'd become a man.

"There you go," he announced.

She nodded, turning her head to look out at Figgins. "I'm going to have him adjust your punishment to two weeks of detention. A suspension would look horrible on your permanent record."

"Thanks." He smiled down at her, but looked incredibly sad. "I really liked him, mom," he said softly. His eyes looked moist, like he was about to cry, but somehow he kept the tears from falling.

"I know, kiddo," she said. "But maybe it's better to learn he's a jackass now so you don't waste anymore time on him. Do you want to do a Disney night?" she asked. "We can pick up some Ben and Jerrys on the way home?"

A slight smile formed on his lips. "Can we watch _The Little Mermaid_?"

She laughed, slinging an arm around his waist, since he was too tall for her to reach anywhere else comfortably. "Sure. I don't think I've seen it in a couple years, and I'm almost over the trauma."

Kate opened the door, pulling her son through with her as she went to corner the principal to demand the adjusted punishment. She didn't mind if she had an audience for this fight.

Kurt stood beside her, straight and proud, and she took comfort in his strength. For so long, she'd only seen what Burt wouldn't have liked about his son, missing the most obvious things. Kurt was a Hummel, through and through, and no one would get away with hurting those he loved.

_End._


End file.
